Forty-two Democrats who endorsed Mary Peltola refused to answer when Fox News asked them to denounce an Alaska ballot effort that put another Dan Sullivan against the Republican incumbent.
Fox News contacted leading Democratic lawmakers and governors who had backed Peltola in Alaska’s Senate race and asked a direct question: would they condemn the placement of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot opposite incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)? None of the 42 replied, Breitbart reported.
The same figures have spent years warning that Republicans endanger American democracy. Their silence lands against a New York Times account that aides to Peltola helped recruit the same-name candidate in a bid to pull votes from the Republican incumbent. Peltola’s campaign denied any role.
Only one Democrat publicly broke ranks. Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand told Fox the practice is wrong no matter which party uses it.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal once framed election misconduct in absolute terms. In 2022 he said voter suppression poisons the system.
"voter suppression is poisonous, it is toxic to our democracy,"
Sen. Chris Murphy struck a similar note in April 2025, arguing that people who see an urgent threat must behave accordingly.
"those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent" need to "act like it."
Sen. Cory Booker went further in December 2016, casting democracy itself as a duty above party.
"protecting American democracy is a calling far higher than party politics."
Fox listed all three among the lawmakers who did not respond when asked about the Alaska ballot. The silent roster also included Sens. John Fetterman, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Kelly, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Elisa Slotkin, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, George Whitesides, and Chris Pappas. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown and Governors Wes Moore, Gavin Newsom, and Roy Cooper likewise gave no answer.
Mary Peltola herself did not reply to the Fox query. That pattern of non-response sits beside earlier coverage of an Alaska Democrats secret plan to place a second Sullivan on the Senate ballot.
The New York Times reported earlier in the week that Peltola aides helped recruit the man named Dan Sullivan so votes would peel away from the Republican senator. The Peltola campaign rejected that account and said it had no involvement.
In a Juneau appearance covered by Just the News, Peltola went further in public.
"I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters."
Rob Sand took the opposite approach. Speaking to Fox last Sunday, the Iowa Democrat refused to treat the tactic as a one-party problem.
"both parties are doing it and neither party should be doing it,"
Sand called the maneuver “manipulating the political system.” Fox noted he was the only Democrat who had publicly condemned the alleged approach at the time of its report.
Separate reporting has examined how Democrats plotted a second Dan Sullivan to muddy the Alaska ballot, adding pressure on party leaders who now decline comment.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s political network also faced questions. After denials of any tie to the second Sullivan candidacy, a group linked to Schumer ran advertising that featured Alan Harris. Harris had delivered the candidacy paperwork for Dan J. Sullivan and is the partner of Democratic strategist Amber Lee, who has backed Peltola.
A spokesman for the Schumer-aligned operation told the Washington Free Beacon there had been no communication with Dan J. Sullivan and that the ad was filmed weeks before the filing. The sequence still undercut efforts to wall off the national party from the Alaska candidate.
Republicans have separately pressed claims of a broader effort tied to Schumer’s orbit, a theme covered in reporting on a yearlong scheme to plant a decoy Sullivan on the Alaska ballot.
The Department of Justice filed suit last week against Alaska election officials. The complaint seeks to delay certification of the Senate results if the incumbent loses, arguing that ballots cast for the other Dan Sullivan could have altered the outcome. Unnamed legal experts told Fox the case faces steep hurdles because it would require inferring voter intent from anonymous ballots and would press against state control of elections.
Additional layers have followed. The Justice Department has issued subpoenas in a criminal inquiry touching the Peltola campaign. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a state criminal probe into alleged illegal recruitment of the same-named candidate. Those steps track with earlier coverage of how the Justice Department ramped up a criminal probe of the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
On the campaign trail, Sen. Dan Sullivan has given voters concrete guidance under Alaska’s ranked-choice rules. The Washington Examiner reported that he told Republican supporters not to rank Mary Peltola. The ballot lists four candidates plus a draft-in line and gives voters five ranking columns.
The certification fight itself has already drawn federal litigation aimed at stopping results that include the activist Daniel J. Sullivan, a point examined when the Justice Department sued to halt Alaska Senate certification under those conditions.
The Alaska episode is straightforward. A second Dan Sullivan appeared on a Senate ballot opposite the Republican incumbent. National Democrats who had endorsed Peltola were asked whether they rejected the tactic. Forty-two of them said nothing. Their earlier speeches about democracy, suppression, and urgent threats remain on the record. The non-answers do too.
Voters can judge which standard actually governs when the target is a Republican seat in Alaska.
